[ Claire pours for both of them. It's fragrant, with a light ginger taste, blackberry leaves and lemon balm, rosehip seeds, and white tea. ] Help yourself to anything here. [ The tray has honey for sweetener, a bowl of complimentary blackberries, soft cheese and crackers. Almost as if she'd known eventually there would be company.

Only once they're settled does she explain, but first she acknowledges the Materia. ]

It makes sense then, that you wouldn't necessarily know how to perform magic inherently. As for avoiding it, in the time I'm from, magic is feared. Women are persecuted for it the most, and typically for reasons that involve challenging something a man said. Knowing too much, healing someone a little too well for the church's liking meant you must be in-cahoots with the devil for such knowledge.

[ She speaks from experience, from nearly burning at the stake, but that's a depressing tale she keeps tucked way for now. ]

I didn't trust how...freely it was used at first. I thought it must be for a certain type of person, surely not everyone. But slowly I realized no one would arrest me for grinding herbs for salves and teas.

[ Claire regards Tifa with a tilt of her head. ]

How do you feel about it? Being able to so freely learn?